Fire guts maintenance building at Sombrero Ranch on Niwot Road

NIWOT -- A maintenance worskshop building owned by Sombrero Ranch erupted in flames Friday evening as employees were working on a vehicle inside.

Mountain View Fire Rescue officials said Saturday that an investigation has determined that the fire was the result of workers trying to remove a fuel tank from a vehicle up on jacks. When the vehicle partly slipped off those jacks, it caused the fuel tank to spill gasoline on the floor.

That gasoline came into contact with an incandescent work light and immediately caused a flash fire.

The fire, at 10111 Niwot Road, west of U.S. Highway 287 in unincorporated Boulder County, was called in to Mountain View Fire Rescue at about 5 p.m., and the building was fully engulfed by the time firefighters arrived about five minutes later, deputy chief Steve Pischke said.

Firefighters found the fire was threatening two large fuel tanks directly next to the building. but all the Sombrero Ranch workers who'd been in the building were accounted for.

One worker's arm was singed by the fire, but there were no other injuries to workers or firefighters during the incident, officials said.

During the height of the blaze, several propane, Argon and oxygen tanks inside the building exploded. Firefighters were, however, able to protect the large propane tank and vechicle fuel tank outside the building.

Though firefighters had the blaze mostly extinguished by about 6 p.m., the building appeared to be gutted and its metal walls were buckled.

Mountain View Fire Rescue officials said Saturday that damage to the workshop maintenance building, two vehicles and a horse trailer inside the building at the time of the fire -- plus equipment and toools inside the building -- estimated to total about $120,000.

On Friday night, Mountain View Capt. Dean Street said the 50 foot by 40 foot building, which housed farm equipment and vehicles, was a total loss, and Boulder County Sheriff's Sgt. Jason Heathman said there was significant damage to the vehicles inside.

No injuries were reported to any of the 200 horses that reportedly were elsewhere on the Sombrero Ranches Niwot-area property, Heathman said.

There was no fire hydrant near the building, and tankers were used to haul in water to fight the fire. Mountain View Fire Rescue was assisted by units and crews from the Boulder Rural, Rocky Mountain and Hygiene fire departments as well as the Boulder County Sheriff's Office and the Longmont Emergency Unit.

Shortly after the fire began, emergency crews shut down Niwot Road between U.S. Highway 287 and 95th Street and it remained closed for several hours afterward.

Firefighters were called back to the building about 10 p.m. Friday to extinguish smoldering debris that had rekindeled.

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story